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WIP: from Trash to Treasure

I have not done anything creative for months. I still do not have the okay from the doctor to work, and I have lots of work that I owe folks, however, I need to make something without obligation. I apologize to those that I owe things.

The project that I have in mind is this: make a knife from salvaged material that would be something of value and very cool. I know several makers that like being green and using stuff that can be recycled. I have a 5 foot ring of wrought iron weighing 200# that was salvaged from a piece of equipment that was used in an old mine near here. Before the days of mild steel, they made and used wrought iron. It is made by getting iron to a semi molten state and creating a large ball of sponge iron mixed with some silica slag. They would squeeze this down and forge weld it onto itself multiple times to remove some of the slag and impurities. The result was a stringy iron bar with about 2% silica. Because the iron is nearly pure, it does rust but does not become cancerous like mild steel. They used wrought iron for anything structural, pipe. wagon wheel rims, mining equipment etc. If you look around it can be found today.We'll forge this out for the cladding on a sanmai blade.

The core material (pictured on top of the ring) came from the old Western Cutlery Co. that went from 1911 to 1984. They were based in Colorado and made fixed and folding sporting knives. I'm not sure if they made any kitchen knives. The steel is a grade that was developed specifically for knives and cutlery. It is known as 1095CV or 50100 and is still used by CASE and others for their carbon steel knives today. It is 1095 with the addition of chrome and vanadium. A knife maker close by picked it up as scrap and I got some from him 20 years ago.

I think that the profile will be the same as the Forgecraft. I like this idea because Forgecraft made their first knives from salvaged saw blades that had the recognizable pattern rolled into the surface to help keep the blade running cool at the saw mill.

We'll do a little every day. Not sure how long it'll take. Pic's are of the ring, cutting a small piece, and welding a tang so that we can forge it out.